A little girl left paralysed after being gunned down in a gang-related shooting has told of her fears of being hurt again.

Thusha Kamaleswaran, six, is expected to be permanently wheelchair-bound after a bullet hit her in the chest and passed through the seventh vertebra of her spine.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, she told how she spends most of her life in hospital and said the ordeal has left her fearful. She said: "I am scared to get into the car because of the strangers all around us. I worry that someone will try to hurt me again."

Aged just five, she was shot when three men opened fire into her aunt's south London shop in March last year.

On Monday, Nathaniel Grant, Kazeem Kolawole and Anthony McCalla were convicted by an Old Bailey jury of causing her grievous bodily harm with intent.

The little girl, who wanted to become a professional dancer, now has to make do with watching footage of herself performing.

The six-year-old said she gets bored at hospital, and misses her family, school friends and her mother's cooking.

Thusha, who only goes home at weekends, is due to be discharged from Stoke Mandeville Hospital next week.

Her ordeal has also shattered the lives of her parents, who have reportedly battled debt and emotional distress since the shooting. Her father Jeyakumar Ghanasekaram, who gave up work to be at his daughter's bedside, has had to pawn his wedding necklace to raise money. Her mother Sharmila Kamaleswaran is said to have suffered insomnia and depression.

In the interview, Mr Ghanasekaram said the family's world "completely changed" on March 29 last year, and the tragedy also left their 12-year-old son Thusan and three-year-old daughter Thushaika traumatised. He added: "We have lost everything. We have no money and we don't know what will happen to us in the future."